Simon KeefeDigital Product Management

My name is Simon Keefe and I am the Product Manager at Rugby Australia. I am responsible for a wide range of digital products used in all facets of Rugby - from local community rugby to our national teams. I work closely with stakeholders across the organisation & Rugby Community, managing products from conception to launch and then throughout their lifecycle. It is awesome being able to use my skillset in an industry I am passionate about.

My role involves assisting the various departments define their goals and requirements, plan the approach to the project, brief the team & monitor the project as it moves towards completion. Once live I continue to work closely with the Product Owner, stakeholders and users to continually optimise & evolve the product to better suit their needs. I am closely involved with all parts of our Digital Products, including resource requirements, associated costs and timelines.

Prior to my current role, I was the Digital Technology Manager Developer at Rugby Australia and prior to this at Cornerstone Digital.

Primary Skillset

  • Assessing Stakeholder Requirements
  • Project Scoping and Quoting
  • Information Architecture
  • UX Planning
  • Running Sprint Meetings - JIRA
  • Internal and External Stakeholder Management and Communication
  • Documentation - Confluence
  • Quality Control
  • Stakeholder Training
  • Contractor Management

Recent Experience

Product Manager, Rugby Xplorer - Rugby Australia

February 2022 - Present

In 2022 I received the opportunity to make a change from Development to Product Management, taking the lead on our digitial products, including our flagship digital platform, Rugby Xplorer. This has been a significant career change however I have the support of an experienced team behind me and have found my experience working as a Developer has proven valuable.

Rugby Xplorer(RX) is a Digital Platform that enables fans, players, coaches, officials and administrators to follow, participate and manage every facet of Rugby Union. RX enables competition administrators to create and manage competitions, participants to register to clubs and a thousands of websites catering for community Rugby Clubs all the way up to National teams.

At the start of 2022 we took on a significant challenge of bringing USA Rugby on to the platform. There were many unknowns going in to this project ranging from ensuring RX complies with USA legislation, to rolling out significant changes to RX to enable it to handle USA Rugby's dynamic governance structure. That said I am really proud of what we accomplished, RX launched successfully in time for Club registrations!

In addition I have been managing the High Performance Analytics team which was a very new area for me. This has been really interesting working closely with the coaches and support staff to provide dashboards and reports used in team selection, injury prevention and on game day! I am really enjoying this challenge.

Digital Technology Manager - Rugby Australia

April 2019 - February 2022

My primary role involved working closely with both internal and external stakeholders & Developers to continually enhance the 36 sites in the Rugby Network. I have the chance to work with a great team who are passionate for the game and the positive impact Technology can have for both fans and participants.

Shortly after starting this role, the decision was made to move our sites from Sitecore to KeystoneJS, a headless CMS that runs on NextJS. I then lead a Dev team through this process, liasing closely with ThinkMill (who created KeystoneJS) to ensure best practices are followed - they taught us a lot!

Whilst this has been a lengthy process (especially due to Covid19) we were able to launch all of the club and state sites in the small window between the end of the 2021 season and before Memberships campaigns and Registrations kick off for 2022. This was a massive team effort and something I am really proud of!

Senior Front-End Web Developer - Rugby Australia

June 2015 - February 2022

Shortly after starting at Rugby Australia as the sole Front-End Developer, we kicked off a project with Accenture to build www.rugby.com.au in Sitecore. I worked closely both with internal stakeholders and the Development team at Accenture to ensure the project met all of our requirements, was and within budget and delivered on time (before the 2015 Rugby World Cup).

After the launch I took ownership of the site and ran weekly sprint meetings with the Business Owners and other stakeholders ensuring update requests were clearly defined, prioritised and completed. A series of enhancements were made, both to the public facing site and back-end allowing our journalists to operate efficinetly.

Throughout 2018 amd 2019 I was responsible for building out an additional 22 sites on the same framework (now known as the "Rugby Network"), including sites for the Wallabies, Wallaroos, AU7s, Super Rugby Clubs and Memeber Unions across Australia. In addition to development, my role involved working closely with stakeholders both within Rugby Australia and each state and club to ensure all requirements were met.

I am really proud of what I was able to accomplish in this role, especially the significant improvement that was made to Rugby's websites in Australia.

Senior Front-End Web Developer - Cornerstone Digital

May 2010 - June 2015

My primary responsibilities included:

  • Website Development from PSD to Launch
  • Responsive and Fluid Development
  • Client Site Updates
  • CMS Integration and Client Training
  • Web Server Configuration
  • DNS Configuration
  • HTML Email Campaign Development
  • Contractor Management
  • Quoting on New Projects
  • Project Management
  • Interviewing, Assessing and Training New Staff
  • Client Training

Early Experience

  • Digital Resource Manager - Rosshaven Design: 2009
  • Freelance Web Developer - Skeefe Systems: 2008-2009
  • Web Developer - Simply Marketing Group: 2007-2008

Education

Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM) ®
Project Management Institute (PMI)

Issued Nov 2020

The CAPM is a globally recognised accreditation covering the following:

  • Fundamentals of project management and the role of project managers
  • Project management environment, and project integration management
  • Project scope, schedule, cost, quality and resource management.
  • Project procurement, communication, stakeholder and risk management

To prepare for the exam I completed the Project Management Basics course run by the Project Management Institute.

Diploma (Distinction), Web Development - TAFE NSW

2007-2008

Whilst a little outdated now 😊, this course gave me solid understanding of core Web Development principles which was crucial to my success in the first few years of my career. The major project in this course was to develop a custom eCommerce site in VB.NET which was awesome - "Well Red Books"!